| AVS 60th International Symposium and Exhibition | |
| Nanometer-scale Science and Technology | Wednesday Sessions |
| Session NS+BI+EM-WeA |
| Session: | Nanopatterning and Nanolithography |
| Presenter: | A. Cheshmekhani, Georgia Institute of Technology |
| Authors: | C. Henderson, Georgia Institute of Technology R. Lawson, Georgia Institute of Technology A. Cheshmekhani, Georgia Institute of Technology |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Future scaling of integrated circuits (IC) is in jeopardy due to a number of challenges related to both future material and process requirements that are needed to allow for fabrication of sub-20 nm IC devices. One of the most critical challenges is that of developing patterning technologies that can allow for formation of sub-20 nm patterned structures in a fast and economically viable manner. Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography (EUVL) is poised to be the successor to current 193 nm optical lithography for high volume manufacturing (HVM) of integrated circuits. However, problems in developing sufficiently bright exposure sources for EUVL have hindered its ramp into HVM. Now that source power difficulties appear to be on a path to being addressed, the other critical problem of developing resist materials that are capable of being patterned with EUV radiation and which can produce the desired sub-20 nm patterned features must be addressed. Current chemically amplified resist material designs will be incapable of satisfying all of the patterning requirements for EUVL, and this alternative resist material designs will be needed to enable successful integration of EUVL.
The goal of our work has been to develop novel organic resist materials that can enable sub-20nm patterning using EUVL. One of the critical challenges for producing sub-20 nm organic material patterns is that conventional positive tone polymeric resists exhibit poor mechanical stability at such dimensions and are thus prone to pattern collapse during development and drying. Furthermore, photoacid diffusion in conventional positive chemically amplified resists limits their resolution. As a result, one of our design strategies has been to explore the use of molecular resists that can either be crosslinked upon to exposure to operate in a negative tone manner or which can be crosslinked and depolymerizes upon exposure to operate in a positive tone fashion. We will present our latest results on these two families of materials and will show examples of organic resists that are capable of resolving 10 nm features using 100 keV e-beam lithography and sub-20 nm features using EUVL. The detailed materials design and mechanisms underlying these capabilities will be discussed.